Following the premiere of “NAZA” at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for the introduction of a law that would “revoke the citizenship of anyone who slanders IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers.”
“We will hit them in their pockets and also in their citizenship, because their place is not among us,” he said in a video posted to X on Wednesday. He went on to describe another law that would raise “the defamation damages they can be sued for twentyfold.”
“NAZA,” co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who are both Israeli citizens, shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” according to its official logline. The film features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers.
The documentary won the special jury prize at the festival, and also received a 24.5-minute standing ovation — the longest in the festival’s history.
Netanyahu’s statement comes following the words of Israel’s Minister of Culture Miki Zohar, who threatened to revoke the Israeli citizenships of Abraham and Szor on Sunday. He called the documentary “shocking” and accused the filmmakers of “betraying the state.”
“The self-loathing that burns in the creators, who are willing to harm their homeland just to get applause from antisemites around the world, is inconceivable and constitutes a betrayal of the state,” Zohar wrote. “As Minister of Culture, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for betraying the state.”